Ebenezer Butterick, (born May 29, 1826, Sterling, Mass., U.S.—died March 31, 1903, Brooklyn, N.Y.) American manufacturer who is regarded as the inventor of standardized paper patterns for clothing (1859), first sold in Sterling in 1863. Butterick established a pattern factory in Fitchburg, Mass., later that year and moved it to Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1869. He founded a fashion magazine, Metropolitan, in 1869, to promote pattern sales.